>> i learned that we're seeing a litt bit of tightening already and we'll keep seeing it in iowa, new hampshire, south carolina. as you said, everything tighten ups to the end. >> natural tightening. >> mike barnacle, yes, way too early. i think it's time to ask, what time is it? >> it's time for "morning joe" but right now chuck todd and "the daily rundown." >> who had december 13th for the first natural tightening reference? newt gingrich and mitt romney step up the attacks on each other. but at the end of the day, gingrich makes a kumbaya gesture challenging romney to join him in a new negative attacks pledge. is it a genuine pledge or a front-runners fake out. hot button cases like arizona immigration, health care reform and redistricting all on this year's docket. by the way, they could still take up prop 8 and gay marriage. we're going to look at the impact the court may have on the 2012 campaign. and a showdown over keystone

republicans in the house plan to push through a payroll tax holiday extension bill today. but the bill is tied to the controversial oil pipeline or the controversial to some. time is running out. and the paychecks are on the line. this is "the daily rundown." let's get to my first reads of the morning. we're going to get started with the presidential race. this morning in a letter, newt gingrich is denouncing negative campaigning vowing not to attack his republican opponents. a gesture that's convenient for a front-runner, especially a front-runner with very little campaign money. the move follows 24 hours where mitt romney dialed up one attack after another against gingrich starting with a hit on the former speaker's tone. >> i know that among some folks just saying outrageous or incendiary things will get you a lot of kudos and get your numbers up. it's not going to win us the white house. >> does the republican base want to hear him play that cautious

card. and he also attacked him for not supporting paul ryan's medicare reform plan. >> gingrich said the ryan plan which was an entitlement reform plan was right wing social engineering. i was astonished. >> and romney in new hampshire hit gingrich on private sector ties to mortgage giant freddie mac. the one attack gingrich engaged back with. a little bit of relish. >> i think a fair question is asked, why did he profit as freddie mac failed? >> if governor romney would like to give back all the money he's earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years at bain, then i would be glad to listen to him and i'll bet you $10, not $10,000, we he won't take the offer. >> a little bet reference there. interestingly enough, the romney campaign then extended the tit-for-tat and circulated a youtube where newt gingrich was praising mitt romney's ties to

bain. gingrich is cleverly taking him up on an offer he didn't really make seizing on this comment romney made to politico. >> i'm not going to say outrageous things that can be used to thing them down the road if they happen to become the nominee. i am going to point out my distinctions with relative to newt gingrich and relative to the other people who are on that stage. >> gingrich is conveniently ignoring the second half of that sound bite. so first last night at a town hall in windham, new hampshire -- >> i appreciate governor romney taking that position and hope he'll communicate it to his surrogates and to his staff and consultants and, frankly, to any sup super-pacs that operate in his name. >> this morning he said not to initiate attacks. quote, with ronald reagan's 11th commandment in mind, we will ask our supporters not to contribute to any sole-called super pac that runs negative ads against

any other republican contender. perhaps not a coincidence that his main oppon cent supported by a super pac which has already dropped $2 million in negative ads in iowa. gingrich chose to ignore this comment by romney. >> we aren't running any negative ads at that point, but we may. this is, after aushlgs politics. there's no whining in politics. >> there you go. this move by gingrich has all the guarantee romney will have to own the idea he went negative first, something gingrich is koungt on as back firing with primary voters. weighing into yet another controversial issue animating the 2012 campaign, the supreme court will decide how much power states have to deal with illegal immigration when it takes up a challenge to arizona's controversial immigration law. now with the citizens united campaign finance decision already having a huge impact on the 2012 race, the court will rule on the president's health care law, congressional redistricting, at least in texas which would impact who controls congress and now the arizona

law. a challenge to california's same-sex marriage ban still waits in the wings. we may debate whether this is an activist court. it's certainly an active court. former vice president dick cheney is stopping short of jumping on the gingrich bandwagon but told cnn he's not surprised his former colleague in the house has managed to fight his way to the top. >> we came to congress together at the same time. '78. and when newt showed up, he said, we can become the majority. we can take back the house of representatives. we hadn't had the house since the 1940s. and initially none of us believed it. but he was persistent and tenacious. he kept it up and kept tup and kept it up and finally by '94, he's the newly elected speaker of the house of representatives with a republican majority. so i wouldn't underestimate him. >> former pennsylvania congressman bob walker is a gingrich adviser. he served as deputy whip while

gingrich was the republican whip in the early '90s, and i believe he replaced dick cheney as whip? >> he replaced dick cheney when cheney became secretary of defense, newt became the whip. >> you managed that campaign? >> i was one of the people that helped newt get to the whip job and then i was chairman of the republican leadership when he was the speaker. >> all right. you are somebody we don't see often these days. and that is a former member of congress coming out so vocally, so public for speaker gingrich. why are a number of your former colleagues and current colleagues, why aren't we seeing more of them come out in support of the speaker? >> i think a number of them are supportive of the speaker. and i guess our people are staying positive and not saying controversial things and so thereby not getting air time. but there are a lot of former colleagues and present members of the house who are, in fact, supporting speaker gingrich and i think we will see a lot more of those in the weeks and months ahead.

but i was at a christmas event the other evening where a number of his former colleagues walked up to me and said they were helping. former senator bob smith is on the ground up in new hampshire helping. i know congressman andy ireland, congressman dick scholls are with him, andy harris of maryland is going to be the chairman in maryland. there are a bunch of them out there. so it's just, i guess they are not get -- >> is this a lack of sort of the frankly, the campaign that has a small infrastructure. they are growing, i know, trying to catch up to their poll numbers. is that a result of -- >> we haven't spent a lot of time out seeking endorsements. the romney folks have had five years on the ground. they've done a lot of seeking of endorsement and a lot of people you see coming forward in recent days of people who are with the romney campaign who are doing their job for the romney campaign. and we understand that. >> you know, one of the hits inside this town, and you live here. you're very much have your ear

to the ground on sort of the establishment is this shut that romney is using on temperament, managerial style that somehow newt gingrich doesn't have the temperament or managerial skills to be president. what do you say to that? >> well, i say they need to look at the record. as dick cheney just pointed out, newt gingrich spent tent years helping get us to the majority. he remained focused on what was necessary to get there. we started with a program in 1984, building the contract with america in 1994. the contract with america was not only a political document it was a governing document that allowed us to take over the house and be successful. 70% of the contract became law. we then balanced the budget for four straight years. we enacted welfare reform. we brought about growth economic tax cuts that helped produce somewhere between 7 million and 11 million jobs. that required a lot of discipline and focus. that's what speaker gingrich

provided inside the operation. he had the discipline and folk taos see those things through. >> the hit this morning from the romney campaign has to do with freddie mac. you heard it yesterday from mitt romney. the hit is this. he cashed in on his access. >> i think that's just absolutely wrong. i think that what newt was doing was providing largely contrarian advice to the folks at freddie mac. >> they pay his firm $1.6 million to offer -- >> my firm is a bipartisan firm. one of the reasons we're bipartisan and why people hire us is not only to have people who advocate for them gou have people inside who are willing to give them contrarian advice because if you are planning long-term strategically as a company, what you want to do is have someone who thinks long term and tells you that the actions you are taking now may have these consequences down the road. that is good business practice and so on. in the case of freddie mac, they didn't listen. they continued down a road that got them into tremendous amounts of trouble.

that doesn't mean that newt gingrich was advocating. it means what he was doing was providing them with good advice. >> yesterday i saw in another interview you were defending the speaker's comments about the palestinian people being an invented people. had he been president of the united states and had he said that, there's a lot of experts in this area, in mideast policy that would say it would have blown up the peace process. >> i don't think that that's the case. all of those establishment experts at the time that ronald reagan talked about the evil empire tried mightily to take those words out of that speech and yet those words helped define a relationship that ultimately brought an end to the soviet union and so on. i think that speaker gingrich in making clear what he believes the history is with regard to the middle east has now sent a very powerful signal to the palestinians that you need to prove to me that you are capable of being good partners in the mideast peace process. and he made it the point a day

later that he absolutely is in favor of the two-state end of the process. but something has to be done to get the palestinians to understand that they have to be good partners in all of this. >> by his definition, who is not an invented people? >> there are lots oaf. >> you could make that argument about australians, about americans. jordanians. >> sure. >> saudi arabians. >> sure. and the fact is that it depends upon a combination of territory, depends upon, you know, national status over a period of time and so on. but the only point that he is making is that in the past century, we have seen them develop an identity but they are fundamentally arabs. and one of the problems that has been to get the rest of the arab world to be able to accept palestinians into their own territory or support them in their state. the palestinians have decided to go that direction and so on.

we as a country support a two-state policy but that doesn't mean the palestinians can be partners who believe that terrorism is the way to their national future. >> finally on the campaign. electability. a fair issue? do you think republicans -- are you concerned that republican primary voters may -- their heart may be with speaker gingrich but they may be concerned that he won't be as strong in the general election? >> i was very active working for ronald reagan back in 1980. all the things being said about newt gingrich and his electability at this point were being said about ronald reagan. he was too old. too conservative. he couldn't be jimmy carter and so on. we needed to pick somebody closer to carter in philosophy so it would be a more even contest and so on. i believe the american people with the enthusiasm factor for speaker gingrich is such that he will be a far more powerful candidate in the fall than the other people who are in the field. >> former pennsylvania congressman bob walker. great to see you. thanks for coming in this

morning. >> sure. on the dock eat could the supreme court shape the 2012 election even more than they have with super pacs? we'll look at why the supreme court is taking on so many hot-button issues right in the middle of a campaign year. and then the battle continues. the payroll tax holiday fight coming up today with the language president obama has already hinted he might veto. flirks inside scoop on the senate's secret santa. it's filibuster proof. first a look at the president's schedule. a little swing state interview day. a bunch of regional television interviews he's doing today. and some states that just happen to be in the battleground. colorado, places like that. you are watching the "daily rundown." wow. it's a great hd tv... shhh. don't speak. i'll just leave you two alone. [ male announcer ] the big christmas event is here. starting 8 a.m. saturday.

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as we noted at the top, the supreme court is taking up some politically explosive issues this year. they may have a big impact on the campaign. from immigration to redistricting, we want to go in-depth on the most importent cases to watch. pete williams is here. we can have a debate about what an activist court is. i think it's fair to say they'll be active politically. yesterday they added to their docket the arizona immigration law. what are they looking at specifically about that law that could tell us, for instance, what happens in alabama and some of these other places. >> it will absolutely tell us what happens. how much power do do the states have on their own to do what is essentially a federal job which is controlling immigration. the justice department says when states try to do this on their own it's too much of a blunt instrument. they don't take into account

humanitarian issues. you just have one stamp trying to clamp down so hard it forces all the illegal immigrants to another state and that's no good. that's a fundamental question there. you can say about all of these cases about redistricting, health care, it's really all about -- sort of a broad theme here. it's all about federal power. how much power does the government have to make you buy insurance have the states run medicaid, control immigration and congressional redistricting. i think what's a little surprising about the immigration case and maybe what sets it aside is that they took it now. the obama administration had urged the court not to take it now because they said, look. no rush here. yes you have this arizona issue but you have a number of federal court decisions working their way through the lower courts. >> so a little faster than anybody thought? >> certainly not a surprise the court took the health care case. who else is going to answer this. you already had a couple of decisions. you could argue that it was maybe they rushed in on texas redistricting. they could have let the lower courts argue that some more or

chew it over some more. on the other hand, an argument to be said. they needed to have a quick answer because the election is coming up. by the way, the texas attorney general is right now asking the san antonio federal court which has a role in this redistricting thing to hold off, to postpone the deadline for filing for members of the legislature and the house which was thursday. >> by the way, this is actually going to impact the presidential primary campaign because now there's talk of moving the entire march primaries that texas was going to have to may. of course, who knows what that means delegatewise. so when it comes to the redistricting case, when they jumped in, this hadn't even gone to a full appeals court. wasn't it just a three-judge panel? >> the law is funny here. three-judge panels have a special role when it comes to redistricting. these states need what's called preclearance. states with a history of racial discrimination when they draw a new -- anything that changes -- >> southern states usually have to go to voting rights act. >> or the justice -- they have a

choice. they can ask the justice department to clear. yes, it is a little -- it is a little surprising but i think the lodge ike the court doesn't say why it took that case but they have to get this fixed so they can have an election. >> i've had republicans say texas republicans overreached and created a problem that they could have avoided this issue, even though this court ruling overturning the federal, sort of putting a stay on the federal decision could help them in the long run. >> what's really behind this texas issue is the voting rights act itself. and the supreme court took a look at this a couple of years ago. by a thread, left it going. so, you know, i'm sure the civil rights community is very nervous if -- >> could they actually use this case to basically nullify the voting rights act? >> possibly. i, frankly, don't know enough about the issues here about whether this would be a good vehicle to do that or whether this is strictly going to be a procedural question about who

draws the maps. the issue here is after the legislature drew its map, another court substituted a map and almost kind of redid it from the beginning. >> all these decisions going to come out in the same week in june? it's going to be wild, isn't it? pete williams, what a year it's going to be. thanks very much. let's move to the other branch of government. house republicans are taking their version of a payroll tax extension to the floor today. and while the house speaker predicts the bill will pass, republicans have included a provision deal with the keystone oil sands pipeline. a provision the president warned republicans he'll reject. still, the speaker isn't backing down. >> if the american people want jobs, this is as close to a shovel ready project as you're ever going to see. this is exactly the description of the kind of jobs plans that the president says he wants to enact. >> kelly o'donnell, nbc's capitol hill correspondent. kelly, i know you've had similar conversations probably that i've had over the last 24 hours. it's a congressional jam session.

house trying to jam the senate and white house and senate trying to jam the house. >> as you know, there is this pressure building to get that payroll tax cut extension passed, and extension of unemployment benefits before the end of the year. the president wants that very much. many here in congress and both parties want to get that done, too. and the fight is always over how to get there. so today, house republicans will take a vote. they expect it to pass. they expect to have some democrats on board for their plan. but as you mentioned, there is some provisions that's are, you know, getting some political heat. and the keystone pipeline is one of those. at the same time, the senate and house appropriators, those who kind of lay out the map for spending, are working on a big trillion-dollar package. and there are differing accounts this morning about where that stands. i'm told by some republicans the deal is done. they've got it. it will be okay. it will be passed before the end of the year. and democrats are saying not so fast. so that raises the question of, is one measure being used against the other to try to

force all of this through. >> i want to ask about that. it's my understanding republicans are accusing the president and harry reid of somehow delaying the deal -- any sort of formal agreement on the appropriations because they have this fear that the house republicans will pass this bill on the payroll tax extension and unemployment and keystone and then adjourn and get out of town if the appropriation bill is passed first. >> that's exactly what we're hearing this morning. now the white house and democrats are saying that there were still issues, the riders, the policy aspects to the appropriations bill. so, no, it's not done and that it shouldn't be put into this sort of political context, but republicans are definitely feeling that there is irritation from the president and harry reid over this. republican aides are saying, no, they would not leave town. they would not adjourn. let's see, they say if the house passes this today as expected and then let the senate take a look at it and see what they would do. there's yet another political undercurrent over how they'll

get money to keep the lights on around here. it's one of those things where it's going to be brinksmanship until they do leave town. the president has said he won't go to hawaii this weekend if that's required to keep this all going. >> yeah, there's no way they're adjourning on friday, though they are acting as if they are because the senate did a secret santa exchange and i'm told it's filibuster proof? >> senator al franken of minnesota came up with the idea and got republican mike johanns of nebraska to go along with it. they set a $10 limit for the senators and 61 chose to participate. so they had their little get-together last night. and they gave each other gifts. some of my favorites include, for example, john cornyn, republican of texas, gave chris kuhns a trio of texas salsa. a lot of them did things from their home states. one gave beer to michael bennett of colorado as a little nod to

ohio's beer and maybe the best of all is joe manchin of west virginia gave fellow democrat chuck schumer coal, carved coal in the shape of a donkey and an elephant. and both seem quite pleased with that. >> chuck schumer, coal in his stocking. i'm not sure i like rob portman who explained ohio's beer to me. i think a lot of people in colorado would pick colorado's beer. >> i know where you're going to stand on that. >> you guys also drink verners which i don't get. >> so cheerful around here, chuck. all cheerful. with europe's debt crisis still looming hour, will the fed react today? the market rundown is next. and vladimir putin facing a surprising challenger in his bid to become president of russia again. the latest on the billionaire from new jersey giving putin a run for his money. first, today's trivia question. who is currently the most senior junior senator?

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or visit your local liberty mutual office, where an agent can help you find the policy that's right for you. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? 57 seconds until the opening bell. time for the market rundown. becky quick -- >> it's not europe today. big news. it's not europe that's driving the market. we're going to open up by about 55 points. a lot of things have been coming out this morning. we got some numbers. retail sales were up 0.2%. a little weaker than the street had been expecting. we were looking for 0.6%. best buy will be under pressure today. they came out and missed earnings expectations by about 4 cents. they also warned that margins are going to get worse next year. that means they are give away go goods for even cheaper. it's going to be off today. we also have jon corzine who will be heading back to the hill. if you didn't get enough last time around, he'll be taking

grilling and questioning once again today over the mf global saga. and a fed meeting coming up today. the fed will be meeting through the morning. a statement coming out at 2:15. we're not expecting them to change rates, but guess what, chuck. it is ben bernanke's birthday. >> i read this on your twitter feed. i was going to end with that. but you scooped me. >> got you. >> becky quick, talk to you tomorrow. thank you. out of iraq, the u.s. prepared to enter a new phase in our relationship with iraq. >> after nearly nine years, our war in iraq ends this month. >> but can the iraqi government stand on its own. plus, mitt romney slams newt gingrich for calling the palestinians a, quote, invented people. we'll have more on that. you're watching "the daily rundown." tossing and turning have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep. and lunesta can help you get there, like it has for so many people before.

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on the decision of sandusky to waive the pretrial hearing. >> and not being able to real t realistally present a -- the better part of a tactical maneuver would to be waive today's proceeding being very well prepared and realizing we have much of the evidence we would have gained from today's proceeding without proceeding with it and putting everyone to the task of sitting in court for an entire day's worth of court hearings. now having said that, i'll be happy to answer any questions. >> now wait. i want to control this. we can't -- i can't answer five or ten questions. >> ex-penn state coach jerry sandusky spent less than an hour in court this morning. he waived that right to preliminary hearing. sandusky who is facing more than 50 counts of child sex abuse surprised the media by addressing them as he left the building. >> we'll wait for the opportunity to present our side.

>> and we couldn't do that today. >> by waiving the hearing, he avoids having to hear from his accusers, having the media report on what the accusers said. the case now proceeds to his arraignment set for january 11th. belgian television reports that police are hunting for two or three people suspected of throwing grenades into a bus shelter killing two people and injuring up to a dozen others. residents in the city of llege are being told to stay in their homes. russian billionaire and owner of the nba's new jersey nets who will soon become the brooklyn members, miguel prokhorov has announced he'll run against vladimir putin. prokhorov avoided criticizing putin directly. he said society is waking up. two army helicopters crashed monday night while on a training mission in washington state killing four soldiers.

officials at joint base lewis mccord says it's not clear if the two choppers collided or they just simply crashed separately. all right. with the u.s. military moving out of iraq, the fate of the country is largely in the hands of prime minister nuri al maliki. a man the president says he trusts to do the job. >> prime minister maliki has been explicit here in the united states. he's been explicit back in iraq. in his writings, in his commentary. that his interest is maintaining iraqi sovereignty and preventing meddling by anybody inside of iraq. and i believe him. >> okay. he was in iraq just a few months ago and has lived there on and off for about four years. all right. there's a lot of concern in the national security community that while maybe president obama had

no choice but to say what he said, that al maliki isn't going to be doing everything we wish he were doing on the security front. >> i mean, there are two concerns. one is he's many things. he's not a democrat. when you are in a -- >> small "d" democrat. >> he's arresting his political rivals in some cases killing them. he's arresting and -- >> you feel like he's a strong man? >> yes. >> obviously, he's not hussein but something in the area of hosni mubarak. president obama said he was inclusive. no sunni politician would tell you he's inclusive. they are reviving de-baathification. they are arresting se ining sun huge numbers. >> you seem to have concerns. what kind of -- how quickly could this boil? >> you might see it border outside of the borders as well as inside. they alluded to this yesterday. we desperately as a country a and as an administration want

bashar al assad to step down. they suspended syria's membership only iraq and leb ton abstained. they are close to iran and syria is close to iran. yesterday they tried to paper over -- >> they said it's right on the border. not going to touch it. what's the real -- what is the real reason behind it? >> the real reason is maliki personally and his government more broadly, they have very close ties to iran. iran, syria is iran's closest arab ally. >> is iraq second? >> yes. yeah it is. >> and that seems to be -- obviously, it's a huge concern among a number of more conservative national security folks in this country. how much influence does iran have inside iraq these days and do they have more than the united states? >> the second question, yes, they do. they have a lot of influence -- >> the united states has more financial influence, right? the united states is financially made that country -- kept it afloat, has it not? >> we spent $30 billion, $40

billion within iraq but that money is over. we're not doing rebuilding projects or funding things. iran is. they are building banks, hotels. their stuff is growing. our stuff is declining. >> so when you say building banks, building hotels, one of the things maliki today, i think, speaking to the u.s. chamber of commerce either today or tomorrow here, looking for business investment. is this something that the u.s. government needs to encourage u.s. business to do this simply for u.s. security reasons so it isn't iranian businesses being built there? >> we've been doing a lot of fact checking about american presidential candidates. yesterday maliki said american oil companies have the lion's share of oil contracts. it's chinese oil companies. i was just in the south of iraq. you don't see american oil companies. >> it's chinese oil companies with a wink and a nod from who? >> from maliki and his government. >> from maliki himself. is there a political rival to

maliki at this point that could prevent him from becoming what you are making the argument that he's becoming, which is sort of a low-grade strong man. >> no, there isn't. one of the things that's a big concern is there is no interior minister. there is no defense minister controlling the army. there is no national security officer. maliki right now is all of those things. so the kind of jobs that might create someone who would have the public standing to run against him, he's running it all. >> you are painting a pretty bleak picture. obviously 17,000 u.s. citizens that are going to be in iraq after december 31st, 2011. some of them spr forces. some of them are cia. a lot of them are state department officials. and including we'll have a counselate just a few miles from the border of iran. who is protecting them? >> of that 17,000 figure, about half are security contractors. so our troops are leave bug these other armed people will fill the void. >> and they have to be there to protect the u.s. government workers because there's not trust. it's a trust with the iraqi

security forces or capabilities? >> both. mainly it's the no u.s. president would want to hand, let's say an embassy to iraqis, have the embassy be breached and not being accused noft doing all he could with americans to protect americans. >> some blunt assessments of the maliki government in iraq. as the republican race takes a negative turn, our super tuesday political panel will be here to talk about it all. first, the white house soup of the day, it's a cold day. it's a good day for starch and carbs. so loaded potato it is. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. when you have tough pain, do you want fast relief? try bayer advanced aspirin. it's not the bayer aspirin you know. it's different. first, it's been re-engineered with micro-particles. second, it enters the bloodstream fast, and rushes relief to the site of your tough pain.

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our country has been through a long and trying period with the outcome of the presidential election not finalized for longer than any of us could ever

imagine. i'm thankful to the american people for the great privilege of being able to serve as your next president. >> the daily flashback. to the year 2000. this date. 36 days after actual election day america finally had a president-elect. george bush's victory speech came a little over an hour after he received a concession call, the final concession call from vice president al gore one day after the supreme court ruling stopped the recount. we might have a wilder election in 2012. is mitt romney's campaign in trouble? romney acknowledged the possibility he may not win the nomination. >> look, in trouble would mean that something bad might happen to me. i'm not in trouble. i'm in a great spot. i could become our nominee or someone else might become our nominee and i can go back to business and go back to my family. either one of those is a very nice outcome. >> christina is associate politics editor for roll call. jennifer ruben rigwrites the ri

turn blog. welcome all. >> good morning. >> all right. jennifer, i want to start with you. you've been very supportive of mitt romney. you hear what he says yesterday. are you concerned that, uh-oh, is he losing fire in the belly because that's not the mitt romney we think we know. >> i've heard him say that exact line several times before. i'm interviewed him. i've heard him -- >> is that just a politically correct line to say? >> i think it is. in partahi wants to begin to draw this very stark contrast. he did that very well yesterday between him, the businessman, the guy who has a life, a stable family, who has been at the same church his whole life and newt gingrich, a creature of washington, erratic, has been all over the map, multiple wives, multiple belief systems. has been on, ironically, romney would say, both sides of many issues. is not telling the truth about his role as a lobbyist.

and i think all of this is part of their new plan to create a character distinction. and i think it really is going to be a character race. >> cynthia tucker, you have been writing for the atlanta paper for a long time. you have known newt gingrich for -- >> i have known every newt, all the newts. >> i'm going to guess this is a rare occasion where you and jennifer are going to gre on almost every point. >> i agree with every point except the business about both sides of issues. that is certainly true for newt gingrich, but it's true for mitt romney -- >> you've probably spent more time observing newt gingrich than any of us because you were there before he came into leadership in the late '70s and '80s. what is mitt romney underestimating about him? >> i think that he may have -- he now knows how good newt gingrich is at standing up to a challenge.

if mitt romney thought that newt was just going to immediately melt away over attacks on his character, fidelity to his wife, he clearly is not going to do that. i think all of us may have underestimated how much newt -- or overestimated, excuse me, how much newt may have needed the traditional campaign apparatus. mitt has a lot more money than newt does. he has a much better organization than newt does. but this campaign is turning all of that on its head. and one more thing i will say about mitt romney. we have all given him kudos for his debate performances so far. i think we're now seeing he didn't have a real challenge before now, and now he's getting that challenge from newt gingrich. >> it was interesting yesterday. speaker gingrich responded to why he quit being speaker. and he gave a more philosophical

answer. here's what he said. >> why i stepped down? >> yes. >> sure. i had run out of the ability to convince my members to be reformers. they were burned out. they were exhausted. four straight years and they were just tired. i wasn't really to -- >> i think one of newt gingrich's political gifts, and bill clinton has the same gift is this ability to take what is a negative where he admits he takes an element of truth, his members were burned out, he couldn't convince them anymore. he couldn't quinconvince them os terms. he puts a rose petal on it. >> you have how many former members who are going to be willing to like come back to him on this and say that's not exactly how i tomorrow. but i think it also really illustrates how well known this sman to the american people. and that's really changed the dynamic in this race. romney is very well known and gingrich is very well known. they are really fighting it out on different terms.

one of them introduce themselves to the nation. >> and that brings me up to something. what is a new piece of -- it's weird. you can have so many you don't see the largest wart, because they're all there. and when john kerry upended howard dean, it's because the public didn't know him. what new information is there to undo him? >> i'm going to take a contrary position. we know newt because we've been watching him for decades. most voters know him as the guy on fox, the guy who has written books -- >> and the guy who brought republicans back from -- >> and this is new information for us, and that's why ron paul, newt gingrich, bachmann, romney -- excuse me, are all trying to -- >> you think they have to sustain that attack? >> i do. it's going to be over months and

weeks. >> stick around. we're going to talk a bit about electability on the other side. trivia time. we asked who is the most senior junior senator? a lot of you went with akaka. that is not direct. tom harkin. chuck grassley elected in 1980. even after serving for more than a quarter century, he's still the junior from his state. we'll be right back. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. ♪ [ man ] we've been in the business over the course of four centuries. [ woman ] it was a family business back then, and it still feels like a family business now.

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let's bring back the panel. okay. electability will be another argument. a couple polls come out tonight,

but the gallup number some of the swing states. it's closer, but newt gingrich does lead president obama it is clear that he's more competitive again president obama. how does he deal with that? >> he has to play as the real fighter, to be able to move some of those poll numbers. that's not necessarily a winning argument, but these primary voters will vote that he's more aggressive. >> do they you havely unanimously say, yeah, sure, we'll talk newt over romney, or are they saying he's unpredictable. >> he is unpredictable. that's the problem. if the democrats decide, don't -- >> careful what you wish for?

>> exactly. some of us remember 1908 -- >> they picked reagan. mitt romney has had damage by the dnc? >> no, i think he's used that to say i can take a punch and hit back. i think -- >> shameless plug time. >> roll call's front page two big stories we've been on top of, this vice chairman of the conference. >> turning into a tea party litmus test. >> ron johnson, he's going to pull it off? >> maybe. >> i'm going to plug an obscure thriller, if you've been following newt gingrich, he limes doomsday scenario, there's a thriller called "one foreign minister after" it's an interesting read. >> michael crichton writing

about that, too. >> under ten, vienna youth league, the stallions won in convincing fashion. >> no bias here at all? >> none at all. impartial observers. that's it for this edition. tomorrow is poll day, the brand-new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll, we'll debut it a bit tonight. coming up next chris jansing & company, and then don't mess andrea mitchell reports. spark card from capital one. spark cash gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. it's hard for my crew to keep up with 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. 2% cash back. that's setting the bar pretty high. thanks to spark, owning my own business has never been more rewarding. [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet?

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